'Dismal' TV market takes a turn for the worse

After reporting that the TV market had hit unprecedented lows, the latest Worldwide TV Tracker from IHS has found that the TV market has fallen even further to a second consecutive year of decline.

Worryingly for the industry, the pain is being spread across not just the developed markets but also those emerging areas in which much hope was invested.

Overall, the analyst said that following a third quarter it described as dismal, the outlook for global TV shipments appeared even dimmer in 2013, with shipments now forecast to fall by 5%. This represents a slide to 226.7 million units in 2013 from 238.2 million in the previous year and follows a 7% decline in 2012, when shipments fell from 255.2 million in 2011. Even though shipments rose 12% compared to the second quarter of 2013, this came during a time when TV set shipments normally grow as the Christmas season approaches.

"A wide range of factors are conspiring to undermine television shipments in 2013, from economic weakness and market saturation of flat-panel TVs in mature regions, to plunging CRT sales in developing countries," said Jusy Hong, senior analyst for consumer electronics & technology at IHS, explaining the collapse. "This is all adding up to a second consecutive year of decline for the television market."

The analyst added that the Western European and Japanese TV markets have been declining for three consecutive years since 2010, and the North American market has been shrinking since 2011.

Moreover, every type of television is set to suffer a decline, including the major categories of liquid-crystal display (LCD), plasma TV, cathode-ray tube (CRT) and rear projection. The key LCD TV segment is set to see shipments decline by 1% and the smaller plasma segment will suffer a sharp 27% decline, while will likely plummet by 40%.

Yet following the two-year decline, IHS actually forecasts a return to marginal growth for the worldwide television market next in 2014. It believes that the global TV market in 2014 will inch upwards 1% to 229 million units driven by a 5% growth in LCD TV which should compensate for the shortfall and allow the overall television market to grow.